Procter & Gamble and PSI to Provide Safe Drinking Water to Zimbabwe

Procter & Gamble (P&G) and global health organization Population Services International (PSI) will provide 10 million liters of safe drinking water to help prevent cholera in Zimbabwe. More than 1,000 people have died from the current cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe.

Developed by P&G, PUR Purifier of Water is a powdered water clarification and disinfectant technology that comes in small, easy-to-use packets. Using some of the same ingredients as municipal water systems, the PUR water purification packets remove pollutants and cysts, as well as kill viruses and bacteria, including the bacteria that cause cholera.

PSI has the staff, infrastructure and resources to distribute the PUR packets provided by partner non-governmental organization, AmeriCares. The packets will be distributed for free to those living in areas with high cholera outbreaks in and around Harare, Beitbridge and Mudzi, Zimbabwe. Approximately 10,000 families and 40,000 to 60,000 people will be reached with the free distribution of the PUR packets to meet their water treatment needs for three months.

"P&G is grateful for the work of our safe drinking water partners, PSI and AmeriCares, during this holiday season to make PUR available to the people of Zimbabwe and to help address this deadly cholera outbreak," said Greg Allgood, director, Children's Safe Drinking Water (CSDW), at P&G. "PSI will provide the equivalent of 300 tanker trucks of purified water treated with the PUR packets in order to help prevent thousands of cases of cholera."

The CSDW program is a signature program of P&G's Live, Learn and Thrive global cause, which reached more than 60 million children in need around the world just last year. P&G launched CSDW in 2003 and since then has worked with partners to provide more than 1.3 billion liters of clean drinking water to people in over 40 countries. PSI is a critical partner in these efforts and provides PUR in 10 countries. In 2008, PSI received commendation from the Congolese government for providing PUR to save lives during a cholera outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.